Subway franchisee settles 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit in Rotterdam

A local Subway franchisee has settled a 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit for $80,000 after a former Subway general manager solicited sex from two teenagers applying for jobs.

A local Subway franchisee has settled a 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit for $80,000 after a former Subway general manager solicited sex from two teenagers applying for jobs.

Photo: Metro Video Services, LLC/For The Houston Chronicle

Photo: Metro Video Services, LLC/For The Houston Chronicle

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A local Subway franchisee has settled a 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit for $80,000 after a former Subway general manager solicited sex from two teenagers applying for jobs.

A local Subway franchisee has settled a 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit for $80,000 after a former Subway general manager solicited sex from two teenagers applying for jobs.

Photo: Metro Video Services, LLC/For The Houston Chronicle

Subway franchisee settles 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit in Rotterdam

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ROTTERDAM — A local Subway franchisee has settled a 2015 sexual harassment lawsuit for $80,000 after a former Subway general manager solicited sex from two teenagers applying for jobs.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Draper Development, LLC will also take other steps to settle the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that in 2013, Nick Kelly, a former general manager at the Rotterdam Square Mall Subway store sent text messages to two 17-year-olds who applied for jobs. In one case, Kelly’s text message said “Bang my brains out and the jobs is yours,” according to the EEOC.

Court documents show Kelly texted the same complainant asking "how badly do you need a job," and later texted "we swap (pictures) and decide" before he sent the victim a photo of himself.

The victim said the texts made her feel "disgusted, scared, embarrassed ... humiliated ... nauseous and gave her stomach pain," according to court documents.

The documents state that the other victim "suffered extreme nausea and so much stress that she was eventually hospitalized," as a result of the incident.

In both cases the teenagers refused and were not hired.

Kelly was fired on Oct. 18 of 2013, three days after texting the photo of himself to the second victim, according to court records.

"We had this one bad apple that put so much stress on the company, and we feel horrible for the victims. We're glad it's over," Lawrence Jasenski, CEO and co-owner of Draper Development, said Tuesday. "We're only as strong as our weakest link, and we had a really weak link with this one individual."

Jasenski said Kelly has since moved out of the country and he's not seen or heard from him after his firing. Court documents show he was employed by Draper from January through October of 2013.

The allegations violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment. The commission filed the lawsuit in July of 2015 after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement, according to a news release.

In addition to paying the $80,000 settlement to the two women, Draper Development will distribute a revised policy prohibiting sexual harassment, conduct anti-harassment training for managers and employees, post a public notice about the settlement and report all sexual harassment complaints to the EEOC.

Jasenski said Draper already conducts sexual harassment training with its employees, but would "go above and beyond, and even add another segment" to the training in the wake of the settlement.

"We're just going to continue to keep our eyes open," Jasenski said.

Jasenki co-owns Draper Development along with Paul Harding, a managing partner of the Niskayuna law firm Martin, Harding and Mazzoti.

"Conditioning hiring in exchange for sexual favors, known as quid-pro-quo sexual harassment, is exactly the type of behavior that has made the deserved momentum around #MeToo continue to grow stronger," EEOC Regional Attorney Jeffrey Burstein said in a statement. "The EEOC is determined to do its part to ensure sexual harassment of this kind is eradicated from the workplace."